Bills late-game management broke ‘dumbfounded’ Scott Hanson: ‘This is astounding’

If you were wondering what the Buffalo Bills were doing at the end of their 23-20 loss to the Houston Texans Sunday, you weren’t alone.

Scott Hanson was incredulous as NFL RedZone tuned into the ending of Bills-Texans. He couldn’t believe the clock management before him, as head coach Sean McDermott and offensive coordinator Joe Brady were trying to will the Bills to a win in regulation on the arm of Josh Allen.

Having the ball inside their five-yard line, the Bills made not one but two risky passes in the closing seconds, tied 20 apiece. The Bills (and Allen) broke Hanson’s brain as he struggled to comprehend why they’d dare to throw the football instead, asking aloud, “What are they doing?”

“That is wild, ladies and gentlemen,” he said. “Two dangerous throws from his own end zone for Josh Allen. And I’ll tell you what, Sean McDermott’s gotta be saying the same thing. I mean, ‘OK, aggressive is aggressive, but there’s only 20 seconds left to go in regulation and then we head to overtime. And there’s 95 yards in front of us.”

As many pointed out in the replies, Houston had three timeouts remaining. So, running the ball wouldn’t have necessarily run the clock out. That said, two risky passes seemingly let the Texans off the hook, and Houston didn’t have to burn all three of its timeout(s). At the very least, Buffalo can scrape together a few yards off the back of James Cook, making a field goal on the ensuing drive that much harder.

And yet…

The Bills’ decision-making continued to confound Hanson (and the viewers at home). Allen threw it again from his own endzone on third-and-10 and skipped the pass in the direction of Curtis Samuel. Houston didn’t need to use a single timeout, and here, the Texans were getting the football back with great field position.

“This is almost like they don’t know the score of the game here, ladies and gentlemen…I am dumbfounded by these decisions here,” Hanson added.

Only taking 9-12 seconds off the clock came back to haunt the Bills after a Robert Woods 13-yard punt return put Houston on the other side of the 50-yard line, right on Buffalo’s 46.

“Now the Bills strategy backfires on them because you’ve got a punt return almost into field goal range,” Hanson continued. “This is astounding, what we’re seeing in game management, between Buffalo and Houston.”

That it was.

After Ka’imi Fairbairn nailed a 59-yard field goal to give the Texans their third win of the season, Hanson made sure to note that McDermott and Allen would need to answer for the decision-making during the postgame press conferences.

To his credit, McDermott shouldered the blame, but it remains to be seen if that answer will suffice for Hanson, amongst others.